Around 70 million people, mostly in China’s countryside, lived below the poverty line of less than $376 (2,300 yuan) in annual income at the end of last year, the Xinhua news agency cited data from the National Bureau of Statistics. More than 200,000 people still have no access to power and millions lack a clean water supply.

In 2014, around 12.3 million people earned enough to move above the poverty line, compared with 43.3 million in 2011.

In terms of the anti-poverty program China’s government plans better public services, financing of new businesses and improvements in rural healthcare and roads. It also plans to create more jobs for university graduates and to fight unemployment, which has become one of the reasons for the economic slowdown in the country.